


In My Veins

by Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus



Series: And They Were Lab Partners [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, First Ones' Tech, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, Hordak Goes To Beast Island, Hordak is a soft bastard, Post S3, Reunions, Surgery, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 09:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21371731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus/pseuds/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus
Summary: Hordak finds out what really happened to Entrapta and goes to Beast Island to seek her out. It doesn't go as planned.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: And They Were Lab Partners [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548472
Comments: 62
Kudos: 389





	1. Chapter 1

His whole life was in ruins.

Hordak paced around his sanctum, littered with parts and debris which the cleaning robots were attempting to make sense of, the clicking of their feet having long been reduced to background noise.

The portal was flawed, imperfect. Opening it was too dangerous; he shouldn’t have done that. Shouldn’t have allowed Catra to pull the lever, shouldn’t have shouted at Entrapta to power it on. It was all his fault, as usual. Anything he put his hands on seemed to fall apart almost instantly, as if his frailty was radiating from him like a crippling miasma. His plan, his lab, even the reality itself has been blasted apart because he was too eager to return to Horde Prime, to please him like a three-legged dog begging its master to take it in again.

It was pathetic, really.

_ He _ was pathetic.

No wonder Entrapta left him for the Resistance.

A small, bitter smile twisted his lips as he thought about her. He thought about her a lot these days, more than usual. More than he would have liked. He has never, in his entire life, met anyone even close to resembling the beautifully chaotic Princess of Dryl. Her unwavering enthusiasm, curiosity and technological skill lured him to her like a moth to a flame, even when it became clear that he would only end up burned. She was never afraid of him, never cowered before him, spoke to him as if they were equals. It was strange at first, threw him off and made him unsure of how to address her, but as the days turned into weeks and they grew to know each other more, he found it almost relieving. He didn’t repulse her, either; she didn’t see his flaw as a flaw - she saw imperfections as a vital part of science, as something fascinating, beautiful.

She saw  _ him  _ as beautiful.

She was the first to look at him and not see an abomination. 

He reached up to touch the purple gem resting in his collar. He had spent countless hours in the library trying to decipher the writing on it, but to no avail. What could she have written on what was essentially the heart of his new armour? She could have left it blank, but instead inscribed a clear message he was yet to understand, as he was yet to understand a lot of things about her.

It was a shame he would never get to do it.

A loud, familiar screech startled him out of his thoughts. One of the vents rattled and the grate fell off, revealing a very tired, very dishevelled Imp. It screeched and waved its tiny arms urgently, launching itself at Hordak and grabbing him by the collar.

“What are you- Cut it out!” he made a move to shoo the creature away, still reeling from the shock. A part of him was glad, however; Imp seemed to have disappeared after the portal’s explosion, eluding him no matter where he looked. Come to think of it, he should have checked the vents.

Imp screeched again, louder, straight into his face, successfully silencing him. It pointed at the purple gem in his collar, then at its torn and filthy suit.

Hordak got the message, or so he thought. “Were you with Entrapta?” he asked.

It nodded.

A stab of pain somewhere in his chest made him wince, and he suspected that it wasn’t the fault of his armour this time. “Where is she? Is she with the Rebellion?”

To his surprise, Imp shook its head, settled down on his shoulder, and opened its mouth.

Entrapta’s voice spilled out, clear as a bell and embedding another blade into his heart.

_ “If my numbers are right, and they are, if we open a portal, the anomalies will be catastrophic. It’ll unhinge time and space, creating a warped reality that will collapse in on itself, erasing us from existence!” _ It rose higher in volume and urgency, the final words coming out as a terrified scream.  _ “I never thought I’d say this, but we can’t go through with it.” _

She knew. Hordak rubbed his chin, processing the information. Entrapta knew that the portal was dangerous, predicted the outcome perfectly, as usual. But if so, why hadn’t she made any move to stop Catra from activating it?

His question was answered by another voice, this time Catra’s.

_ “Why aren’t you in Hordak’s lab?”  _ she demanded, obviously angry. Her voice grated against Hordak’s nerves.  _ “There’s no time. We need to fire up the portal machine.” _

_ “We can’t!” _ Entrapta cried out.  _ “Opening a portal right now will be disastrous. It’s going to collapse and take us all with it. Adora was right.” _

Catra’s voice lowered to a growl.  _ “Adora is right,” _ she uttered, then chuckled in a way that sent chills down Hordak’s spine.  _ “Adora gets everything she wants. But not this time. This time, I’m going to win.” _

He bit his lip. Catra’s instability was even worse than he suspected. He knew that she was unreliable, but to that extent? He should have ended her long ago.

_ “I don’t care what it takes!” _ she cried out. _ “We are opening that portal now.” _

_ “No!” _ Entrapta yelled back at her, her voice ringing with desperation.  _ “I won’t. I need to tell Hordak. He’ll understand-” _

Hordak’s blood ran cold when he recognised the sound of the stun rod, and froze completely when it was joined by Entrapta’s cry, and then a muffled thud.

There was a moment of silence before Catra’s voice broke through, high and hysterical.

_ “Get her out of here!” _

_ “Wh-what do you want me to do with her?” _ came another voice he didn’t recognise, probably of some low ranking recruit.

_ “I don’t care. J-just get rid of her!”  _ Catra demanded, voice trembling.  _ “Put her on the transport to Beast Island.” _

The recording ended there, and exhausted Imp collapsed on Hordak’s shoulder, something the latter didn’t register. He stumbled, reaching out to grasp the wall for support, the metaphorical gears in his mind turning at the speed of sound, connecting the evidence he was presented with to his own suspicions and hypotheses, eventually leading him to a conclusion that knocked the air out of his lungs.

He gasped, his other hand travelling to his chest as his heart, one of the few non-robotic organs left in his body, pounded against his ribcage with the force of a sledgehammer. His legs were trembling, threatening to buckle under his weight, his red eyes no longer blind to the truth that he should have discovered as soon as Catra opened her cursed mouth.

Entrapta wasn’t a traitor.

She wasn’t the one who let the Rebels in.

She knew the dangers of opening the portal, wanted to warn him.

_ “I need to tell Hordak. He’ll understand-”  _ her voice echoed in his mind, taunting him. He was the one who insisted to activate the portal. He was the one who snapped at her. He was the one who trusted Catra despite every single instinct screaming at him to kill her before she caused even more damage.

It was all his fault. And now, Entrapta was as good as dead, stranded in the most dangerous place in all of Etheria. Imp was lucky; it had wings and probably flew back to the Fright Zone as soon as it could, though it was evident that the poor creature was beyond exhausted. No wonder; it was a miracle that it was still alive.

Entrapta could not be so lucky.

With a growl that left rookie recruits trembling and running back to their quarters, Lord Hordak stormed out of the sanctum, already forming a detailed and foolproof plan that would allow him to extract Entrapta from that wasteland without putting either of them in danger. He will gather troops, bring medical equipment in case she needed treatment, and return her safe and sound back to where she belonged.

Once that is taken care of, he will find Catra and make her regret every single second of her damned, treacherous existence.


	2. Chapter 2

Who was he kidding? He all but sprinted to the hangar, jumped into the fastest ship he could find and just flew off, having packed nothing but some rations, spare ammunition, and Emily. He paid little mind to the pain radiating from his body; he had gotten used to it throughout the years and knew that it was caused by the exertion and would fade away eventually. Right now, Hordak had more important things on his mind.

The journey to the island was a blur that only sharpened when he set foot on the dark, corrupted ground. He chose a secluded beach for a landing spot, hoping that his arrival had gone unnoticed by the inhabitants of the wasteland. It was well past nightfall, but darkness gave little cover against some of the creatures he had imported from all over Etheria in order to make the place as lethal as possible. 

Beside him, Emily rolled off the walkway and landed in the sand with a high pitched "woooop" that made him wince. The poor thing was loud and had a faulty leg, and he really would've preferred to leave her in the Fright Zone, but 

_ "Hordak," Entrapta's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. She was rummaging under her desk, throwing parts and tools alike all over the sanctum. "Have you seen my mask? I can't seem to find it." _

_ "No," he replied, setting the soldering device away. He couldn't suppress a small smile as he watched her turn the entire lab upside down in search. "Where have you last seen it?"  _

_ "On my face!" she gestured at it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But then it just wasn't there! How am I supposed to work without it?"  _

_ He was just about to stand up and help her look - if only to get some peace of mind - when they heard a "woooop" and Emily stumbled in, beeping insistently.  _

_ Entrapta brightened up. "Oh, Emily knows where it is!" She bounced up to her, her hair holding her up as the robot led her to the nearest ventilation shaft. "Up there?"  _

_ The robot made an affirmative sound.  _

_ Hordak watched, bemused, as she briefly disappeared inside the vent. There was a few seconds of rummaging, followed by a triumphant "eureka!" before Entrapta reappeared, this time with her mask over her face.  _

_ "I built a tracker into it," she explained proudly, swinging on her hair as if it was a swing set, "so that Emily can help me find it if necessary." _

It wasn't much, but according to Emily, the mask was somewhere on Beast Island, confirming Entrapta’s location; there was a high chance that she still had it with her. If he could locate the mask, he could locate Entrapta. 

And if it meant having to put up with that obnoxious, faulty ball of scrap metal he was definitely, absolutely, not at all growing fond of, then so be it. 

"Alright," he growled at the robot as Imp perched on his shoulder, regarding the surroundings with wide eyes. "Lead the way."

***

As they tore their way through the tendrils of corruption that covered the island like mold, Hordak couldn't help but return time and time again to what he had heard from Imp. 

Catra had lied to him. Again. She took out his chief scientist and engineer, the only one aware of how dangerous the portal was, the only obstacle standing between her and her schemes. Truth be told, Hordak would have been impressed if he weren't busy planning her long and excruciating demise. Oh, she was going to pay for all the trouble she had brought him, and she was going to pay tenfold. First, he will torture her; wipe that perpetual smirk off her face until she’s begging him for death, something he would probably withold from her until she turned into a broken shred of who she once used to be. Then, he will throw her in a cell to rot, until the wounds and starvation took her away slowly, painfully. She did not deserve a quick death, nor a honourable one.  


"A shame, Catra," he growled to himself. "You had potential, you really did." 

Still perched on his shoulder, Imp sighed quietly, opening its mouth a little to play back one of Entrapta's monologues.

_ "...an improvement of 46% after incorporating the virrinium alloy. I don't usually use virrinium because of its weak mechanical properties, but it displays an impressive resistance to magic, something I think Hordak will appreciate." _

His ears perked up at the sound of his name.

_ "He has to be the most fascinating individual I have ever met!”  _ Entrapta’s voice was high with excitement, and judging by the varying volume of the recording, she was moving all around the room.  _ “He's smart, and strong, and so adorable when he's trying to be intimidating!" _ There was an audible squeal of delight.  _ "Not that he's not intimidating. He can be really scary, but he doesn't scare me. Like when I made him soup, he would just snarl and turn his head away like a fussy toddler." _ A short pause, then  _ "I sure hope he never finds this tape." _

Hordak's eyes widened and a giant blush coloured his pale skin. 

"Wh-" he sputtered, fixing Imp with a glare that could split a mountain in two. "What did you play _that _for?" 

The creature shrank away and cleared its throat before opening its mouth once more. 

_ "It makes me feel better, you know?" _ some unknown cadet's voice conferred shyly. It was muffled by other voices and the ringing of cutlery. The cantina?  _ "A little less alone." _

Hordak sighed tiredly, his anger dissipating. He understood. He missed Entrapta's voice, too, and the few tapes he had managed to salvage weren't exactly cutting it. He shouldn't have snapped at her back then, should have listened when she advised him to hold off with opening the portal. He should have been more vigilant around Catra, too, kept a closer eye on her. Should have done this, should have been that. Nothing he ever did was enough. And now, because of his incompetence, Entrapta could be…

Could be… 

Now, Hordak was by no means a good man. He had killed, tortured, conquered. Done things that would have given anyone else with even a shred of conscience nightmares until the end of their life. He had sent troops to slaughter villages full of innocents under the cover of the night. He had watched planets explode, watched entire galaxies crumble into nothingness without even a bat of an eyelid or a twinge of regret. He was horrible. He was cruel. He was ruthless. 

And yet, he couldn't bring himself to finish the thought.

The sheer idea of Entrapta being hurt, of sitting curled up in some hastily put together shelter, wounded and cut off from all working technology… It scared him. It hurt him. It made a dull, unbearable pain blossom in his ribcage, poisonous petals clogging his lungs as his throat closed up at the mere thought of his lab partner, his friend, his Entrapta in any sort of danger.

He sighed. "Imp." 

The creature chirped questioningly. 

"Begin recording." 

Taking a deep breath, Hordak began to speak. 

"Beast Island, day one. I was foolish enough to believe Catra's lies. Again. The blame lies on nobody but me, but once I return to the Fright Zone, I will punish her in an appropriate and permanent manner. She has become too dangerous, too unreliable, and this incident has driven this point home."

He slashed his way through another web of corruption, growling.

"I do not know why I ever doubted Entrapta. She, unlike Catra, has never failed me." His voice turned softer as the image of her smiling face danced before his eyes. "I don't even know why I am recording this. I guess that it makes me feel better somehow. I missed her. I still do. I have never missed anyone before, and the sensation is a novel one, although unpleasant. This is the first time I have ever felt so close to another being, but then again," he chuckled, "I have never met anyone like her before."

Emily let out a "blooop", indicating that she agreed. It didn’t escape his attention that she was fond of Entrapta, displaying more emotional attachment than any other robot he has come into contact with. He will have to ask Entrapta about her programming. Glitchy or no, it was rather fascinating.

Of course, that was provided that Entrapta was still…

A tendril wrapped around his foot, emanating a chill he felt even through his armour. He sliced it off with a knife he brought for that purpose. The blade had a current running through it, burning through even the thickest webs that dared to keep him away from his lab partner.

Emily’s beeping was growing quicker, indicating that they were on the right course. Hordak carried on speaking; perhaps Entrapta would be able to hear him.

"The language of my people has no word like love.” He hesitated. “At least, if it does, I wasn't taught it as a clone. Or maybe I was, but do not remember or my flaw erased it from my memory. Who knows how deep it reaches, what else I am missing."

Another tendril wrapped around his wrist, holding fast. It took not one, but two strikes to sever it. After it came another, and another, wrapping around his limbs and tugging at his armour. Hordak tore through them all, teeth grit in determination. The whispers were beginning to get to him already, lilting voices dragging his darkest thoughts to the surface. 

“Keep moving!” he barked at Imp and Emily. Since Emily was a robot, she was more or less immune to the malevolent aura of the island unless it somehow got to her processor. Imp was alright, too, its tiny wings allowing it to evade any tendrils with ease.

A sharp stab of pain made Hordak gasp out. He stopped, one hand reaching to his shoulder. The armour was malfunctioning again, though whether it was because of the corruption or simply because he was overexerting himself was difficult to tell. Still, he forged onward, cutting through everything on his path and stepping over corroded parts of First Ones’ machinery. Behind him, he could hear Emily whimpering to herself and wondered how the wasteland must look from a robot's perspective. It sent a shudder down his spine. 

He placed a hand on her chassis, trying to be reassuring. 

"We will get out of here soon," he told her. "As soon as we find Entrapta."

Emily nodded, seeming emboldened, and stumbled past him, her radar beeping with increased urgency. They had to be getting close. 

The further he went, however, the more ugly thoughts reared their heads, whispering into his mind with horrible, lilting voices. What if Entrapta wouldn't want to go with him? Last time they saw each other, he snapped at her and demanded that she do the very thing she tried to warn him against. He shouldn't have yelled, shouldn't have taken his anger out on her. Come to think of it, what reasons did she have to come with him? The portal was a failure, but it did its job. With that project completed, there was nothing binding her to him. 

His armour malfunctioned again, this time on his legs. Hordak cried out, falling on one knee. The deeper he went into the island, the more treacherous it became, and he was growing exhausted. Surely, the voices cooed to him, it wouldn't hurt to take a break… 

"No!" he roared, slashing at the vines that began to travel up his arm. He would find Entrapta and bring her back home no matter what. She  _ was _ alive, and she  _ would _ go with him. They were lab partners, after all. Friends! She cared about him… 

…

…or did she? 

He slumped down against a corroded piece of machinery, grasping his head. The voices were growing louder, drowning out everything else. He was a failure; a malfunctioning, flawed mockery of a clone that didn't deserve to live, didn't deserve to be in the company of such a magnificent being as Entrapta. He had nothing to offer to her anymore, aside from himself, but who would be foolish enough to have him? No. If he was lucky, the only thing she felt towards him was pity; if not, carefully concealed revulsion. Perhaps she saw him as another puzzle, a test subject to be analysed and discarded once the experiment was over? Why else would she bother with making that suit for him? Why else would she care? 

More vines were wrapping around his limbs, slithering under the plates of his armour, trying to tear it off. He struggled against them, slashing desperately. Somewhere in his periphery, he thought that he heard Imp shriek something, but the whispers were deafening, his mind abuzz with corruption. Why fight? Why not just give in and let the island free him of his burden? If he gave in, the pain that accompanied him ever since he could remember would finally end. 

"Hordak!" Entrapta's voice tore through the poisonous miasma. His heart jumped right up to his throat and he roared, tearing through the vines like they were made of paper. The voices quieted, retreating from his mind and leaving him standing in the middle of the path, gasping for air, eyes wide and scanning the darkness around him in search of the Princess. 

"Entrapta?!" he called out, almost dizzy with relief. "Entrapta, where are y-" 

His gaze landed on Imp, perched on a branch and regarding him with evident concern. It opened its mouth and Entrapta called out his name once more. 

Hordak sighed wearily, pinching the bridge of his nose. Of course, it was only a recording. 

"Good thinking," he admitted, swallowing his disappointment. "Thank you."

Imp chirped, gliding down to perch on his shoulder. They were quickly rejoined by Emily, who beeped at them urgently. The signal was getting stronger. 

They moved forward, slower than Hordak would have liked, but his limbs ached and the tendrils loosened some plates of his armour, leaving certain spots vulnerable and, annoyingly, zapping him every now and then. 

The landscape didn't seem to change as they progressed, the same barren wasteland with no discernible landmarks or vantage points. Hordak was glad that he had Imp and Emily with him; the latter could fly higher up and look around while the former guided them towards Entrapta. Or her mask. There was no guarantee that she still had it, after all. 

He stomped down on a tendril that tried to reach for him. Entrapta never parted with her mask! And even if she did, she never left it too far away. Besides, what other lead did he have? The island was massive, and charting it all alone would have taken him months, provided that the corruption wouldn't have reached him first. 

Touching the gem on his collar, he ignored the pain in his limbs and quickened the pace, Emily's beeping matching his racing heartbeat. Just a little closer, behind that bend, through that web, over that hill… 

He fell into an empty clearing, the ground under his feet slippery from the rain that he hadn't even noticed began to pour all around them. He made a note to thank Entrapta for designing both Emily and his cybernetics to be waterproof.

Speaking of…

“Entrapta!” he called out, looking around the clearing for any sight of the Princess. “Entrapta, it’s me! It’s-”

He broke off, breath catching in his throat when his gaze landed on something half buried in the mud, a lone circle of red glass reflecting the light of his torch. 

Entrapta's mask. 

He picked it up, examining the dents and deep scratches that ran diagonally across it and through one of the sockets, shattering it. It was covered in some red substance, half mixed with mud and currently being washed away by the rain, but he recognised it immediately, feeling something disgusting writhe at the bottom of his stomach as he did. 

_ Blood.  _

"Entrapta!" he called out at the top of his lungs, desperately scanning the surroundings for any trace of purple, listening out for anything that would even resemble her voice. He didn't care if he was attracting the attention of every monster on the island. He didn't care if his throat was beginning to hurt. He didn't even care when a sharp, stabbing pain tore through his body as another of his cybernetics malfunctioned. He had overexerted himself and his armour was falling apart, but that didn't matter either. Nothing mattered anymore. 

"ENTRAPTA!" 

Above him, Imp was flying in circles and repeating the cry, its voice suddenly muffled by a deafening roar that tore through the air as a large, reptilian beast lunged out of the darkness, tendrils of corruption around its neck and feverish gaze fixed on Hordak. There was a deep cut on the side of its snout, torn flesh exposing knife-sharp teeth. 

He deflected, barely, cursing himself for not paying more attention to his surroundings, and sent a few missiles its way. They hit, leaving large, smouldering holes in the beast's flesh. It roared, swiping its tail at his legs. He dodged and sent out another volley of missiles, this time aiming at its head. 

The creature moved out of the way faster than its size should allow, yellowed eyes narrowing as it attacked, its long neck snapping like a whip, teeth sinking into Hordak's shoulder. They pierced the armour like it was butter, reaching the soft, vulnerable flesh beneath. 

He cried out as the sudden burst of pain almost made him black out, using his other hand to stab the knife into its eye socket. There was a spray of blood and the teeth let go. 

The beast recoiled with a shriek of pain, swiping its tail and this time managing to knock him off his feet. Blinded with pain and fury, it brought its claws down, piercing his chest armour and pinning him down to the ground. 

Hordak screamed, his head briefly filling with dozens of notifications about system failure. He swept them aside, raising the cannon attached to his one good arm, aiming right between the beast's eyes and… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LOVE Beast Island! I love love love love it! When I started writing this fic, back before S4 came out, I imagined it as this kinda prehistoric jungle thing with monsters everywhere. I'm SO HAPPY what I procrastinated long enough to actually see it because it's so much better than I could have ever imagined! A spooky, corrupted wasteland that whispers your darkest thoughts to you and snatches you up like a spider snatches an unsuspecting fly when you're at your lowest. Someone has called it almost Lovecraftian, and that is my faaaavourite flavour. It's a delicious place. Thank you, Crew-Ra.


	3. Chapter 3

Entrapta looked up as the sound of thunder pulled her out of her work-induced haze, which was extremely rude of it. She sent a tendril of hair to close the nearby window, sighing happily when she was surrounded by silence again. 

The Beast Island was a truly fascinating place, she had found. After days of wandering through the wasteland, she stumbled upon an abandoned research facility of the First Ones, destroyed and abandoned, but miraculously devoid of corruption. After some rummaging, she found a broken shield emitter that, after a couple of minutes of tinkering, came back on and raised a barrier of shimmering blue energy that allowed her to go in and out of the compound, but kept the tendrils at bay. She theorised that its failure was the main cause of the facility ending up empty and destroyed.

The building was equipped with a wide manner of interesting devices, so Entrapta immediately made herself at home. Sure, not everything worked, but many things did, and she was repurposing some of them into a ship that would take her back to the Fright Zone.

At least, that's what she would be doing IF THE DAMNED WEATHER WOULD LET HER CONCENTRATE. The rain was pitter-pattering against the roof of her temporary home, effectively driving her up the wall.

"Emily," she called out into the empty workshop, "bring me my mask, will you?" It was equipped with noise absorbers that fitted over her ears. They helped when working with loud machinery, dealing with sensory overload, and right now, with dealing with annoying weather that wouldn't let her concentrate. 

…

Oh, wait. She lost her mask when dealing with that weird lizard thing a few days prior, and Emily was back at the Fright Zone. 

She used another strand of hair to scratch her head. "Imp?" she tried. Back when she first awoke on Beast Island, she found the little thing hidden in her hair. It was pretty shaken, waving its little arms and screeching something she couldn't understand. It helped her with repairs and could cook some surprisingly nice stew. (It liked to hang out in the cantina and spy on the cooks.) And since she didn't have her trusty recorder with her, talking to it really helped. 

It was a shame that it seemed to have wandered off somewhere as of late. She hoped that it didn't get eaten or something. It mentioned something along the lines of _ "we need to get help!" _ and just flew out through the window. 

Sighing, she returned to soldering. Help from whom? Even if it did manage to get off the island somehow, who was going to bother to come and save her? Adora had abandoned her, Catra was the one who put her on the Island in the first place, Scorpia only listened to Catra, and Hordak… 

Her shoulders sagged. Outside, another tendril attempted to ram into the barrier. 

Hordak. 

She really missed him. Back in the portal universe, she recalled having made a robot that looked like him, adorable pointy ears and all. It didn't help much, but it was roughly of the same proportions so she could hug it to her heart's content even when she didn't remember why she felt such a strong compulsion to do it. Would Hordak save her? The portal had worked, so why would he need her anymore? She had taught him how to maintain his armour, too, so he wouldn't even need her for that. 

Normally, her optimism would point out that surely he would have realised by now that something was wrong, that Catra was not to be trusted, and sent a squadron of soldiers to get her back. However, as the days turned into weeks, she had come to accept the sad truth. 

"Face it, Entrapta," she murmured, tucking her knees under her chin. "Nobody's coming for you."

Damn, she really missed her mask. Missed being able to hide behind it and just sit there for a while, not having to worry about those pesky emotions that tended to complicate everything. 

A sudden SCREE! almost made her jump out of her skin. She turned towards the window, now open wide and revealing Imp peeking through it, eyes wide with panic and frantically pointing towards something. 

"What's wrong?" she rushed up to it. "And where were you? I was beginning to worry! Come on, spill it."

It didn't reply, but grabbed a fistful of her hair and took off, making her jump through the window and jog after it to catch up. Her boots squelched in the mud as she ran, the droplets quickly soaking into her clothing. 

"Imp!" she called out to it. "Where are you leading-" 

She broke off when they arrived on a clearing, her hands flying up to her mouth when her eyes landed on the carcass of the beast that had attacked her a few days back as she was out looking for food. What really took her breath away, though; what made her cry out and rush forward and forget all about her exhaustion, was the broken body lying next to it. 

Time seemed to freeze, the scene appearing to Entrapta with perfect, almost surreal quality, down to even the smallest detail. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't look away.

Hordak. 

Her best friend, her lab partner. Her Hordak.

He was lying under the corpse of the beast, eyes closed and his normally slick hair dishevelled. There was a shallow gash on his face, oozing a strange purple liquid that Entrapta quickly realised was blood. It was the same colour as the one seeping from what looked like a bite mark on his shoulder, and the places where the monster's claws have pierced his armour. His armour, the exoskeleton that pretty much kept him alive and running, was dented and broken, entire sections missing or loose.

And the vines. The corruption. Those horrible black tendrils were wrapped around his entire body, some even having snuck underneath the cybernetics to reach his flesh. One was around his throat. They were writhing like hungry snakes, searching for more gaps in his shell. As they did, one moved enough for Entrapta to notice that he was holding something in his hand.

It was her mask.

He was holding her mask.


	4. Chapter 4

It hurt.

Everything hurt.

But, Hordak decided as he stared up at the cloudy sky above him, it didn't matter. 

He tried to get up one more time but cried out when another wave of pain swept through his midsection. Who knew what the beast had damaged? 

His head was buzzing from alarms and error messages, but they eventually blurred together into a staticky background noise. Good. They were beginning to give him a headache. 

"I'm sorry, Entrapta," he rasped out, bringing the mask closer to his chest with a trembling hand. Pressing it to his heart that would soon cease to beat. A vine wrapped around his waist. He ignored it. "I'm sorry that I let you go."

He was such a fool. The universe saw him as worthy of the company of perhaps the most amazing creature in existence, and he threw her away. Allowed her to slip out of his embrace. Allowed her to die. 

Another vine. And another. They were slithering towards him like hungry serpents. 

He loved her. The realisation finally got through that thick skull of his and settled in. He loved her like fire loved an unprotected dwelling. Like a blade loved the taste of flesh. Like a heart loved the blood that coursed through it.  He turned his head to look at his own blood, spilling out of his body. Purple. It made him laugh, a strangled, pained sound. If he squinted, he fancied that it almost looked like Entrapta's hair pooled around him. 

"Look at that, lab partner," he smiled with bloodied lips. "You're in my veins." It was rather fitting, he thought. Coursing through his veins. Through his heart. How could he live without her? 

His vision began to blur, then fade away as his senses shut off one by one. He was finding it more and more difficult to breathe, his breath rattling in his ribcage. Oh yeah, the whispers reminded him, turns out he couldn't. 

Funny, but he fancied that he could almost hear her voice. What a nice thing to hear before death. He almost forgot what it sounded like without the static from the recorder. Entrapta had such a beautiful voice; it was a shame that he would never get to hear it again, hear her explain the details of her new project in intricate detail, hear her arguing with Emily about the necessity for sleep, hear the sound of her laughter. So many little things he used to take for granted, now slipping away from him along with the blood leaving his veins. 

A vine gently caressed his cheek, so cold against his skin that his body registered it as heat. It burned. He barely noticed; one of the error messages looked like it warned him about his nervous system shutting down. His body temperature was dropping fast as more and more vines rushed to claim him, another prey of the Beast Island. Good. A failure like him didn’t deserve anything better.

It was a shame that he wouldn't get to strangle Catra, but that didn't matter anymore. It was no longer his problem. Soon, the whispers consoled him, it would all be finally over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I have said, I wrote most of this before S4 so I didn't see that clip of Hordak blushing red (= red blood.) My headcanon before that was either blue or purple. I couldn't be bothered to change it after S4 because I kind of like the "you're in my veins" bit.


	5. Chapter 5

Entrapta swept all the delicate components she had worked so hard on off the table to make space for Hordak. She lied him down gently, already in the process of removing his broken cybernetics to access the wounds. 

Well, calling them wounds would be like calling a burning tree a match. They looked horrible. His flesh was pierced and torn, exposing ruined organs beneath, mostly artificial with a few exceptions. And blood. There was so much blood, purple and dripping on the workshop floor. Even the shallow scratches on his face were bleeding even though they should have clotted over by now.

Entrapta reached for the workbench and picked up the crudely made shiv she had previously used to cut through all the vines wrapped around her lab partner. They had sapped away some of his strength if the temperature of his skin was anything to go by; she didn’t remember him ever being this cold.

Using the blade, she cut through his clothing to access the wounds more easily. Imp and Emily were already setting everything up for the repairs; Emily knew what to do already and Imp was familiar with the workshop, so she only had to give them a few short instructions and left them to it, pouring all her focus into her patient. 

"Hordak," she murmured, a strand of her hair gently caressing his face. 

He came for her. 

He came all the way to the Beast Island, singlehandedly killed the lizard thing that had attacked her, and now he was lying there, more hurt than anyone she has ever seen before, to save her. 

"Running a diagnostic," her voice shook a little as she plugged him to the lab’s system. He twitched slightly. "Assessing internal damage: 86.45%. Five broken ribs, two broken bones, torn muscles in the left arm and shoulder, one torn lung, internal bleeding. Blood loss: about 38%"

He came for her. Imp must have found him, showed him where she was, and he came for her, from the look of it with no troops. 

She remembered telling him about Emily's ability to track her mask, which explained the robot's presence on the island - Hordak must have brought her with him to help him seek her out. 

No soldiers. No tanks. No ships. No battle robots. Just him, Imp and Emily.

Entrapta's heart hurt. It wasn't like Hordak. He usually planned out his every move, taking every possible outcome and variable into consideration before making a decision. Rushing headfirst into an island full of death was something she would have never expected him to do. 

Unless… 

Unless he departed as soon as he got the message. He didn't even stop to think or take anything but the bare essentials she had found in his backpack. 

He came for her. 

The Rebellion hadn't come for her when she was left trapped in the Fright Zone. The Princess Alliance didn't even try to win her back after she told them about her choice to remain with the Horde. It wasn't She-Ra who risked her life to rescue her. 

It was Hordak. 

And now, he would die if she didn't do something. 

Pushing back the emotions that threatened to swarm her, Entrapta gently extracted the mask from his grip and put it on, the world turning familiar shades of red coloured by the protective glass. One of the lenses was broken, but she had to work with what was available.

Her hands shook, her mind abuzz with calculations and planning out how to close the wounds as quickly and efficiently as possible. No, that wouldn't do. She had to talk herself through it. 

"Imp," she called out, and the creature was with her in an instant. "Begin recording."

It perched on the workbench, indicating that it was ready with a chirp. Taking a deep breath to calm down, Entrapta began.

“Beast Island Log, Day Unknown. My lab partner has arrived to rescue me, but it seems that I will have to rescue him first.”

She described the injuries as she carefully cleaned the wounds, examining the frayed flesh and the broken machinery underneath. Metal and ceramics and composites she couldn’t recognise, probably installed before Hordak ended up on Etheria. She briefly wondered if Horde Prime was the same; she would feel a lot less bad about vivisecting him instead of her partner.

The shiv was discarded in favour of a previously sterilised scalpel. 

“In order to access some of the more remote areas of his organism,” she narrated, bringing the blade to hover above his chest, “I’m afraid that I might have to open him up. Despite it being an excellent opportunity to study such an alien organism from up close, I will refrain from examining him more closely than necessary to keep him alive. Making the first incision now.”

The facility didn’t have any anaesthetics, but Entrapta wasn’t overly worried about causing him pain. His body was in sort of a standby state, conserving the little remaining energy in order to keep the vital functions running. Besides, she was about 78% sure that the circuitry connected to his nervous system was fried, so he probably didn’t feel a thing. And even if he did, Hordak had a pretty impressive pain tolerance, something she has discovered during one of their armour maintenance sessions.

The inside of his ribcage was encased in metal, probably to prevent any excessive bleeding and contaminating the components within. The metal was pierced in the places where the claws were, and Entrapta realised that she would have to either patch the holes up or heat them up and close them that way. But life saving first!

His lung wasn't damaged too badly, but she could hear that he had difficulties with breathing. The First Ones had invented some kind of hardcore band-aid thing that altered its structure to resemble that of the patient's cells. From what she could gather, it seemed to be a temporary solution for the likes of open wounds, but she hoped that it would do the trick with organs, too. Placing the piece of gossamer-thin material over the wound, she watched tensely for any changes in Hordak's breathing. To her relief, it seemed to improve, even if marginally.

“Right. The most important thing now is to stop the bleeding. Beginning the cellular repair now.”

The machine above her whirred to life, sending out a ray of red light, thinner than a hair, that instantly took a sample of Hordak's DNA and proceeded to replicate it, rebuilding torn veins and tissue. Entrapta would have been fascinated if she weren't so busy being downright terrified. 

In the meanwhile, her hair was busy with picking out fragments of bone and metal, carefully setting them aside. His ribs were in an awful state, but luckily none has pierced any of his internal organs. Since the main machine was busy with rebuilding his circulatory system, she grabbed a smaller version of it; a device that sort of reminded her of a pen combined with a laser pointer and set to work on patching up the hole beneath the band-aid. The material was truly fascinating; it blocked off air and liquids, but the laser passed through it without issue. Since Hordak knew his way around biology better than her, she hoped that he would get his head around it once he woke up.

“Commencing the mending now,” she narrated, her hair wrapped around the device as she moved on to other areas, quickly fixing and soldering everything she could. “Damage to the respiratory system minimal; it’s good that Imp notified me early. Hordak will likely have a nasty cough once he wakes up, but other than that he should be okay. I will have to remind him not to talk too much.”

With the damage fixed, she removed the patch of bio-simulating material from where it used to be. They will definitely have to examine it later; it could revolutionise medicine as Etheria knew it!

Hordak’s breathing was still more laboured and shallow than she would have liked it to be, but the oxygen mask was doing a good enough job of keeping him breathing at all. With luck, it will be enough to keep him running until he woke up.

It had to be enough.

*** 

It wasn’t enough.

Entrapta wasn’t sure how many hours have passed as she bowed over the table, the tips of her hair caked with blood and her hands, devoid of gloves for accurate measurements, pressed to Hordak’s pulse points at the wrist and neck. The machine responsible for keeping track of the patient’s vitals was, annoyingly, broken beyond repair, so she had to resort to doing it the traditional way.

Hordak was slipping. His body temperature was lower than it was supposed to be, and the laser wasn’t fixing him up fast enough, even with the aid of several mini versions. His pulse was fluttering like a butterfly trapped beneath the layers of his skin, but it was growing fainter. Weaker.

She was far from an expert in medicine - putting a living being together was much harder than assembling a robot - but the outpost was equipped with some pretty advanced medical equipment. She had used it to tend to her own wounds sustained while on the island, and normally she would be excited to learn more of their capabilities, try out all the functions and become more proficient in operating them. 

But not like this. 

Not like this. 

"Come on," she drawled through gritted teeth, blinking back tears as she soldered the circuit board directly connected to Hordak’s pain receptors. Since he wasn’t under an anaesthetic, maybe the pain would cause his pulse to spike up? That would be nice. Of course, Entrapta didn't want him to be in pain, but anything that would keep his heart beating would be very welcome. 

Imp had paused recording long ago and instead watched her work with large, frightened eyes. Four out of five broken ribs have been mended, and most of the internal damage has been dealt with, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t stabilise him. 

Entrapta realised that she has forgotten to narrate what she was doing, something she never did, but this demanded her full concentration. There was no room for error here. For the first time in her life, she found that she was terrified of failure. There would be no new start if she failed. No further research, no new approaches. There would be no Hordak, and the idea of him actually dying made a terrified gasp tear itself out of her throat. Her hands were trembling, fingers tight around Hordak's wrist. 

"Come on, stay with me!" she cried, a sob rising in her throat. His lungs were working, his nervous system back on track, and all the blood vessels were fixed. She even booted up the blood replication machine to try and make up for all the blood loss! The clunky old thing took forever to replicate an alien blood type, but by the time it was done, the level of blood loss was only 15%. "I have never seen you give up this easily! Fight, damn you, fight for that life of yours!" She was shouting now. "You have survived wars, rebellions, being stranded on an alien planet, and more that I probably haven't heard about. I won't let you die here!" 

And still, he was slipping. She could no longer feel his pulse and his breathing was so shallow that she had to put a piece of reflective metal to his lips and see if it fogged up.

Chest heaving with desperation, Entrapta turned towards the machine she had hoped she wouldn’t have to use. Tendrils of hair quickly placed electrodes on Hordak’s freshly mended chest as she typed furiously at the keypad.

"Neuro-stimulation," she all but yelled at the panel, punching the button when the light lit up green. "Now!" 

A jolt of electricity shot through Hordak's body. His muscles tightened, fingers twitching slightly. The pulse spiked, but immediately returned to its previous level. 

"Now!"

Another jolt. The electrodes felt warm against his skin. Was he this cold before? 

Tears were streaming down Entrapta's face. She had done everything she could, fixed everything she could. He was fine. He _ had to be _ fine! 

"NOW!" 

The machine beeped, the display politely informing her that another shock was not necessary, and suddenly she understood Hordak's compulsion to smash the machines that refused to work. 

"No..." She tore off the mask, throwing it at a wall. It broke in two, the sound of the halves falling muffled by the torrential rainfall outside. It seemed that the sky was mourning him already. “No, no no no no nononononononononononononononono! Come on, Hordak, stay with me!” She patted his face. Tears filled her eyes once more.

He wasn’t breathing.

She had failed.

Outside of the facility, the barrier was black with the corruption swarming against it, seeking out the despair hidden within. 

Entrapta fell to her knees, clutching Hordak’s hand as if something as simple as touch could somehow bring him back to her. It was ridiculous and scientifically impossible, but she couldn’t find it in her to let go. She thought that she heard noises around the lab - something akin to sobbing - and first attributed it to Imp, which turned out to be partially correct.

She didn’t remember ever crying this hard. The tears felt like they would never stop, falling like the rain outside and dripping on Hordak’s cold, still body. Every sob that clawed its way out of her throat felt like it would split her in two, just like her mask.

It was all her fault. She was foolish enough to trust Catra. She was too slow to avoid being zapped. She couldn’t complete the ship on time and get off the island before he came to look for her. Hordak, her partner, came for her, risked his life to find her and bring her home, and she couldn't even put him back together, couldn't make him wake up. 

Entrapta remembered how, during one of the tests, he had grabbed her hand to pull her away from the unstable portal. He had saved her then, shielded her with his own body, risking harm or even d- (she couldn't finish the thought) to save her. It was a quick move, with no trace of thought or hesitation. Like here; he came for her all alone, armed with a knife and what the suit offered him. 

And why? Another sob tore out of her throat. What did he see in her that made it all worth it? Now that he didn't need her anymore, he could have just left her to rot on the island forever. Hells, knowing how loud and obnoxious people tended to find her, he should have been ecstatic to have her out of his hair! 

Unless...

A thought sparked in her mind; a ridiculous, impossible notion. 

Did Hordak… love her? 

She glanced at the crystal she had gifted to him, resting on a workbench along with other pieces of his armour that weren’t too damaged. Did he know the significance of the writing on it? Has he somehow discovered that she… 

No. 

He couldn't. 

He wouldn’t have come for her otherwise.

And anyway, what did it matter? He was gone now. She had failed him one too many times. He was gone and she would never get to be distracted from her work by his eyes, or the sound of his voice, or his beautiful features, or the adorable way his ears moved according to his mood, or how deft his hands were, or… or… 

Entrapta broke down.


	6. Chapter 6

** _Booting up…_ **

_ Object ID: H_14700730, class 3. _

_ System status: active. _

_ Emergency mode: active. _

_ Energy level: 5.74% _

_ **Assessing damage to the biological components...**  
_

_ Vital organs damaged: none. _

_ Non-vital organs damaged: none. _

** _Assessing damage to internal hardware..._ **

_ Vital organs damaged: none. _

_ Non-vital organs damaged: none. _

_ H_tracker.exe not found. Tracking deactivated. _

_Vital fluid loss: 15%_

_Nervous system fully functional._

_All neural functions in order._

_Circulatory system fully functional._

_Average heart rate: 19 BPM... 23 BPM... 28 BPM..._

_Respiratory system fully functional. _

_Oxygen intake: 85%_

_ Energy levels rising steadily. _

_ Threat to life/health of object H_14700730: 17% _

_** Commencing emergency startup.** _

_ Restarting vital functions in 3… _

“Hordak!”

_ 2… _

...

_ 1… _

Entrapta?

_** Commencing the revitalization procedure.** _


	7. Chapter 7

A stabbing pain shot through Hordak’s chest as he choked on his first gulp of air. He coughed violently; his throat felt like it was lined with sandpaper. The second time, however, wasn’t as bad; his instincts kicked in as he took long, shuddering breaths, forcing himself to calm down. His ribs hurt with every rise and fall of his chest. Everything hurt, in fact.

Pain…

Pain meant that he was alive.

His eyelids fluttered, then fell shut; he was alive, yes, but more exhausted than he ever remembered being. All the systems were sending him dozens of reports about efficiency and powering up and assessing damage… Damn, now his head was aching, too.

“-ak?”

He tried to open his eyes again, somehow managing to lift his eyelids just enough to discern that he was in some sort of a room. Everything was blurry, but he could pick out shapes of tables, shelves, and possibly some sort of machines he couldn’t recognise. The air on his skin was warmer, and there was no longer any rain. Instead, there was the quiet, comfortingly familiar whirr of machinery. He wasn’t lying in the mud, either, but on a hard, dry surface. A table, perhaps. Where was he?

“-ordak!”

What’s this? Was someone calling out his name? 

A purple blur entered his vision. The silhouette looked somewhat familiar, so he tried to focus on it, his optics calibrating so that the blur gradually began to sharpen until he could recognise it as Entrapta, dirty and scratched, with what looked like dried blood on her cheek. Both her hair and hands were covered in something purple and metallic-smelling, something which he eventually realised was his own blood. Her clothing was torn and stained, and she sported a makeshift bandage on her forearm.

Hordak has seen the universe. He saw planets collide, saw multi-coloured nebulae that made Etherian rainbows look like child’s drawings, saw countless worlds and galaxies. He saw rivers of stardust and comets with fiery tails, black holes swallowing entire solar systems.

And yet never, in his entire life, did he see anything as beautiful as her.

He tried to reach out for her, touch her cheek and make sure that she was real; that she wasn’t a hallucination his dying mind conjured up to ease his passing. To his surprise, he found it impossible, partially due to his weakened state and partially because she was grasping his hand like he was about to fade away.

“Nnn…” he tried to say her name, to say that he was sorry for leaving her stranded on this island, for failing to save her when he couldn’t even save himself. “En…” A convulsing cough tore through his body, temporarily restricting his ability to breathe. He tasted blood in his mouth.

“Oh, Hordak,” Entrapta gently smoothed down his hair. She was crying. Why was she crying? Was she hurt? Surely it didn’t have anything to do with him? He would rather die than make her upset in any way.

Speaking of death, why wasn’t he…?

His train of thought was brutally derailed by Entrapta wrapping her arms and hair around him, lying down next to him to pull him closer to her warm, living body and burying her face in his chest, her tiny frame shaking with sobs.

She was alive.

Entrapta.

His gorgeous, brilliant Entrapta was alive.

Hordak found himself reciprocating without even thinking about it. It felt natural, an instinct akin to breathing, like holding her in his weak, trembling arms was what he was made for, his only purpose in life. There was hardly any strength in his embrace, but he swore that he would use every ounce of it left in his broken, crippled body to absolutely and utterly annihilate anyone foolish enough to try to pry her away from him again.

“En...trapta.” Her name was like honey on his tongue, like a cool balm on his numerous wounds. Uttering it broke something within him, and he discovered another flaw in his cloning:

Clones weren’t supposed to cry.

He buried his face in her hair, tears vanishing between the silky strands. There was an odd feeling in his chest, like a bird frantically beating its wings against the inside of his ribcage. It hurt, but it felt wonderful, too. He pressed her body closer to his, curling around her as if to shield her from all the harm in the world. Her presence was overwhelming, intoxicating. The softness of her skin, the smell of metal and machine oil that always clung to her hair, the way she seemed to fit perfectly into his arms like they were two lost cogs of the same machine, finally reunited and joined together. Even her voice, broken as it was, sounded like the most divine melody.

If he were to die right there and then, Hordak thought, he would die as the happiest being in the universe.

There was a muffled squeak and he was almost sure that he felt Imp clinging to his leg, but his senses were so overwhelmed with Entrapta that he had trouble with registering anything that wasn’t her. Not that there was anything else worth registering, anyway. Not compared to her.

“You came for me,” she whimpered, looking up at him at last. Her eyes were rimmed with red and framed by dark circles that spoke of stress and exhaustion, but nonetheless shining with joy like two crimson stars.

“Of course,” he replied, wondering if there was another option. What else was he supposed to do? Leave her? Discard the one closest to his heart like she was nothing? What kind of foolish, ridiculous life form would do that? “I could never…” he coughed again, the spasms leaving him gasping for breath. “...never abandon you.”

Entrapta sniffled, wiping her face with a stray strand of hair. She was pressing an ear to his chest, as if to ensure that his heart was still beating.

“I was so scared,” she whimpered. “You were so hurt and I tried to save you but you weren’t waking up and I thought that you…” Her voice broke down, prompting him to hold her tighter.

For a few moments, he thought so, too. After the fight with the beast, both his organism and the cybernetic parts of him were giving out one by one. If his assessment of his injuries was correct, he wasn’t even supposed to be alive! He would have died if not for…

Hordak’s eyes widened in realisation. He reluctantly let go of Entrapta’s hand to reach for where he remembered the wounds being. Instead, his fingers found sensitive but expertly stitched tissue that, as far as he could tell, would in the worst case leave him with nothing but a couple of new scars.

“You… saved me,” he uttered, surprised, and suddenly realised that he could move his left arm again.

Entrapta saved him. She found him somehow, dragged his poor carcass to wherever they were, and put him together because he was a failure of a clone that couldn’t even defeat a single foe and, instead of saving her,  _ he  _ ended up being the one in need of saving.

_ Pathetic. _

“I’m…” his voice was still trembling, as was the rest of his body. He didn’t remember ever feeling so weak. It would’ve been humiliating if the majority of his brain weren’t so completely obliterated by every single aspect of Entrapta’s being. “I’m s… I’m sorry.”

She twitched slightly, pulling away to look at him with wide eyes. 

“What for?” There was genuine shock in her voice, making it rise in such a familiar way. Before long, she will be rattling away about her research and science and the technology of the First Ones and _by the stars,_ he couldn’t wait to hear every word of it.

But first, there was something he had to clear up. 

“I tried to find you,” he tried to explain. “When I realised that Catra lied, that you didn’t…” he was interrupted by another coughing fit, this time a little longer. His whole body spasmed as he fought to take a breath, the pain squeezing tears from his eyes.

It was over soon enough, though, leaving him utilising every ounce of his self-control not to sob at the pain that radiated from his throat and ribcage.

“Your respiratory system was partially damaged," Entrapta explained, "so it would be good if you didn’t talk too much for now.”

Hordak nodded, reaching to grab her hand and press it to his cheek, shutting his eyes with a shuddering sigh. Her presence was overwhelming; it was a miracle that it hasn't made him fall apart.  


“Tired,” he managed to utter, opening his eyes once more to see her smiling at him like he was the most precious thing in the world. She then yawned in that adorable way of hers which he used to try to convince himself wasn’t adorable at all.

“You’re right,” she said and extracted herself from his embrace, the lack of contact leaving him cold. “Here, I’ll carry you to bed. Hang on.”

Two tendrils of hair carefully snaked around him, wrapping him in a warm cocoon as Entrapta carried him out of what appeared to be a mixture of a workshop and a medical facility. The room adjacent to it was smaller and more sparsely furnished; in fact, the only things in it were miscellaneous scrap parts and a rather formidable pile of blankets.

“I have no idea how they survived all these years in a place like this,” she carefully deposited him in the middle of the makeshift bed before kicking off her boots and lying down next to him. “The blankets, that is. I think they’re made of a different type of fabric than the ones Etherians use these days. I ran some tests and it’s about three times as durable as wool, water and fireproof, and keeps you warm for twice as long!” As she was talking, her hair was grabbing blanket after blanket and pulling them over the two of them until they were as cosy as physically possible. Hordak found that he was no longer shivering.

“Interesting,” he rubbed the edge of a blanket between his fingers. The fabric felt thinner than wool, yet he could already feel it warming him up. “What is the thr-” he cleared his throat. “The thread count on these, do you know?”

Entrapta scratched her head. “800? I think 800 for most of them, but I found a few with 1200.”

He nodded, impressed. That was some luxurious fabric for an outpost in the middle of a murderous hellscape. “What was the purpose... of this building?”

“Research. I haven't found a lot of surviving records, but I think they were studying the corruption. Ask Imp and it’ll play you back some of my recordings.”

“I will.” Hordak's eyes were closing on their own accord. Usually, he needed very little sleep, but the strain on his body combined with the warmth surrounding him was making him drowsy.

“En...trapta,” he hummed, draping an arm over her waist. “My Entrapta.”

The Princess stiffened for a split second before relaxing under his touch, sending a tendril to brush a strand of hair off his face.

“My lab partner,” she giggled, wiggling on the spot a little to make herself more comfortable. “Go to sleep, dummy. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Hordak didn’t need to be told twice. His eyelids felt like they were made of lead, and he gratefully allowed them to fall. He was asleep within seconds.  



	8. Chapter 8

Morning found Hordak sore and groggy like never before. He stretched, hissing with pain as his joints cracked, and settled back in the sea of blankets with a weary sigh.

Wait, where was he again?

He blinked a couple of times, chasing away the fog of sleep and found, once his vision sharpened, Entrapta sleeping peacefully on top of his chest.

His heart skipped a beat. 

Oh.

Oh yes, now he remembered.

Sunlight was pouring through the cracked window, playing on her skin and hair and making her look like she was glowing. Her hair was a mess, her clothes torn and wrinkled, and he was pretty sure that the arm she was resting on must have been numb by now, but the sheer sight of her brought tears to his eyes

A small shuffling made him look down with some surprise at Imp, sleeping peacefully under his arm with its small head resting on his shoulder. It seemed to purr in its sleep. Nearby, he spotted Emily resting in the corner.

_ Please, _ he silently begged whatever beings that stood behind the machinations of the universe. _ Please let this last forever. _

Entrapta was snoring, the tips of her hair twitching once in a while. Occasionally, she would slur out a disjointed word or two, like “pancakes,” “bunnies,” or “spectral technochronometry.”

Hordak had no clue was the third one was, and elected to ask her once she woke up. In the meantime, he ran a quick diagnostic of his body to see what state he was in compared to the records from before he passed out.

Huh… 

He raised his eyebrows. No wonder Entrapta had thought him deceased. There were no records in his system of similarly extensive damage. She really was a miracle worker with technology. 

A sleepy “mmmm” pulled him out of his thoughts. Entrapta stirred, hair falling over her face.

"Hordak,” she hummed his name, “don’t go just… yet.”

Go? He chuckled at the sheer idea. He didn’t think that he was in the condition to go anywhere, especially with her sprawled all over him. And even if he could, there was no force in the universe capable of making him want to leave the bed.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, squinting from the sunlight. Her gaze lingered on him for a moment before sweeping all over the room and then back to him. She smiled.

“You’re still here,” she noticed, sounding equal parts surprised and delighted. “Usually you disappear by the time I wake up completely."

“Usually?” he echoed, frowning. “How do I-” He paused, realising. “Did you... dream of me?”

She smiled like the rising sun. “More than you can imagine.”

His heart did something_ extremely _ weird at that. Not entirely unpleasant, mind you, but weird. “I… Ah.” For all his cunning and ingenuity, Hordak’s brain was absolutely hopeless when it came to dealing with emotions. He cleared his throat awkwardly, a purple blush colouring his skin. “I dreamed of you, uh, too.”

Entrapta’s smile turned mischievous. “Oh?”

“Ever since you… left.” That was not a lie, by the way. Lab partners never lied to each other. What kind of partners would they be?!

A brief look of sadness dulled the vivid red of her eyes before they sparked up again. “You did? How interesting! Do you think it’s a coincidence? We should totally do some research into this. How great would it be if we had a psychic bond or something? By the way, I need to fix your armour. Can I make it more purple? It looks so good on you. I have so many ideas already!” 

There she was, vibrant and excited as always, chattering away about science like they were back in their lab. Hordak has never been a morning person, but if all his mornings were to start like this one, he just might change his mind about that. Damn Catra. Damn the Horde. Damn Prime. He was alive, rested, and listening to the woman he loved listing all the improvements she planned to make to his armour. If his accomplishments on Etheria would not impress Prime, Hordak decided that he and Entrapta would just steal a ship and fly off together, and he would show her all the stars she never got to see. If his system analysis was right, his tracking chip was fried, so Horde Prime wouldn't be able to find them. They would take Imp and Emily, and choose a ship with a ventilation system wide enough for Entrapta to comfortably navigate, and they could install solar batteries and maybe a small kitchen for making tiny snacks. And a large workshop. And a bedroom with a bed so much bigger than the bunk he was used to. With tons of pillows. And First Ones’ blankets. And…

Hordak laughed to himself. Good stars, Prime was going to kill him. He won’t even bother with reconditioning.

“Hooooordaaaak, Entrapta to Hordak,” a tendril of hair booped him on the nose, pulling him out of his thoughts. "How did you get here, anyway?"

The question threw him off a bit, forcing his lovestruck brain to snap back to the parts of reality that didn’t have Entrapta in them. 

“I came here on a ship,” he replied. “Blood Hawk, model 14.”

“Ooooh,” familiar sparks lit up in Entrapta’s eyes. “You picked out the fastest model for me, how sweet. Well, I've been building a ship, too," she informed him cheerfully, because of course she was. Of course his brilliant, genius Entrapta has not only found a First Ones’ outpost deep in the most hostile place on the Horde’s territory, but also scavenged enough tech to begin building a ship. "It's not much so far, but it should be ready in time for your recovery, so we could load it with tech and program it to follow us to the Fright Zone while you pilot your ship. How's that? I have found so much incredible medical stuff _you wouldn't believe."_

"Sounds good." Hordak nodded, soaking in every word with an absolutely idiotic smile. Dear stars, there was nothing he wouldn't do for this woman. "Oh, Entrapta?"

She looked at him inquisitively.

_"I love you,"_ he almost said, but barely caught himself in time. No, he wasn't going to ruin this moment. Not in a million years. Yes, she was his friend and lab partner and yes, she definitely cared about him dearly, but the data was too inconclusive to determine whether his feelings were mutual; a confession was too risky, at least for now.

If the whispers had access to his brain right now, they would have called him a coward.

"I missed you," he said instead, running his claws through her hair. Some of the strands tried to wrap around his hand to keep it in place. "You're... you're very dear to me, Entrapta."

She gave him a look melted his very bones. Her hair brought his hand to press against her cheek, warm and coloured by the faintest blush.

"You're very dear to me, too, Hordak," she replied, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch. "More than you can imagine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! Nope, there wasn't a kiss, nor even a love confession, but don't let that put you off! This story isn't over yet; keep an eye out for "Starlight," the next fic in the series. It will be a sequel, but the two fics will work as their own standalone stories with maybe a callback or two. I can't wait to get started!!!


End file.
